Quote:
Originally Posted by pilight
I can't imagine why that matters anymore. They move teams back and forth already. The rules are the same now. They're just arbitrary groupings.
|
It's actually easy to rearrange clubs within the existing leagues to achieve 8-team divisions — use the divisional arrangements of 1993 as the starting point:
Code:
NL AL
East West East West
CHN ARI BAL ANA
MIA ATL BOS CHA
NYN CIN CLE KCA
PHI COL DET HOU
PIT LAN NYA MIN
SLN MIL TBA OAK
WAS SDN TOR SEA
*exp* SFN *exp* TEX
The main difference is that MIL and HOU have swapped leagues compared to 1993.
If you prefer a bit more geography for the NL, then do the move that Commissioner Vincent wanted to do for 1993 but wasn't able to: send CHN and SLN to the West Division and ATL and CIN to the East Division:
Code:
NL AL
East West East West
ATL ARI BAL ANA
CIN CHN BOS CHA
MIA COL CLE KCA
NYN LAN DET HOU
PHI MIL NYA MIN
PIT SDN TBA OAK
WAS SLN TOR SEA
*exp* SFN *exp* TEX
As for scheduling, assuming one wants to retain the current format in which a club plays an interleague series against every club in the other league:
• 10 games against three teams and 9 games against four teams in the same division (66 games)
•
06 games against the eight teams in the other division of the same league (48 games)
•
03 games against the sixteen teams in the other league (48 games)
If you prefer the previous more limited interleague play:
• 12 games against the seven teams in the same division (84 games)
•
07 games against six teams and 6 games against two teams in the other division of the same league (54 games)
•
03 games against eight teams in the other league (24 games)
If you don't want any interleague games:
• 13 games against six teams and 12 games against one team in the same division (90 games)
•
09 games against the eight teams in the other division (72 games)
The 90-72 ratio of division to interdivisional games is the same ratio that was used in the NL from 1969–1992 and the AL from 1977–1978.